


garden you never get to see

by siojo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't copy to another site, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Legacies, Mentioned Gol D Rouge/Portgas D Rouge, Portgas D Rouge Lives, Secrets, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, mentioned previous relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 18:30:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20605370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Portgas D Rouge's father told her something once about men and how important their legacies were, sometimes even more important than the man himself. If that means that she has to make herself into a monster to show their son that his father was just a man, for all that he's lambasted as a monster, than she will.





	garden you never get to see

Rouge hadn’t planned to be here, standing in the crowd as Roger is led up the steps to his execution, her hair pulled up under a hat similar to the one that he had been wearing the first time they had met, to hide it, but here she is. The crowd is loud and barely held back from rioting by the sheer number of marines stationed around the bottom of the platform and the edges of the square.

“You don’t have to be here,” Rayleigh mutters, his hands in his pockets, one of them probably holding tight to the silver flask that Rouge has been politely ignoring since Roger had introduced them, hours before heading off to turn himself in. “One wrong move and someone will hit you.”

“One wrong move and I’ll kill everyone here,” Rouge snaps back, keeping herself under tight control. She might not have understood what haki was until they had explained it to her, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t use it. “I want to know the legacy that he’ll be remembered for.”

“Your family will be his legacy.”

Rouge snorts, feeling her throat go tight at the sound of Roger’s voice, laden with the knowledge that this is the last time she’ll ever hear it, “Roger’s legacy will always be more than his bloodline.”

She stands straighter as the blades descend, silence falling over the crowd packed in too tightly to see the execution. Roger dies to thunderous applause from hundreds of people who will only ever know him as the demon that the marines hunted down and rid the world of. Rouge turns on her heel as someone starts speaking, trying to assure that all of Roger’s legacy and crew are painted with the same brush as he was, hurrying down the alleyway that she had used to get here, Rayleigh right behind her.

“You never said what you were going to do now.”

“Roger’s legacy,” Rouge asks, making sure to keep an eye on those around them. “What do you think it will become?”

“A monster that tried to destroy the world only for the valiant and brave marines to come along and save the day,” Rayleigh answers after a long moment of silence. “You seem to be very focused on his legacy.”

Rouge tips her head to the side in acknowledgement, “My father once told me that a man’s legacy was almost more important than what the man had done in life. It would be what he was remembered for. How history would speak of him. Roger was more dead than alive by the time we met, his legacy is all that I have of him.”

She doesn’t wait for Rayleigh to answer her, walking up the gangplank to the ship that she had paid Tom for and smiling at his younger apprentice, who Tom had insisted on giving her. To make sure that the ship was taken care of, he had said. Rouge knew better than to question it, not when the marines have started to hunt and execute anyone that is touched by Roger’s name.

“Where are we going to go?” Rayleigh asks still following her.

“You can do what you want to,” Rouge answers honestly. “I’m going to see if I can find a quiet place to hide for another four months and then I’m going to make myself a name that will never be forgotten.”

“Someone will put it together. You and him, if you decide to make yourself a name here on the sea. You won’t be left alone.”

Rouge tilts her head to the side, one eyebrow raised, “Rayleigh, I am going to spread my name far and wide. I will be known as a monster and a demon and a criminal, I will let them tar my name, if it means that one day, my child will be able to look at their father’s name and know that monsters aren’t always real. Sometimes, the monsters are martyrs whose stories are twisted by the victor so no one will rally to their cause.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“You would have noticed if you weren’t drinking yourself to death.”

She means it. She knows that Roger would try to temper himself by making it a joke or by wording it differently, but Rouge is bitter and tired and going to spend the rest of her life hunted down like a dog because she loved someone. Rouge loved someone and will have his child, and for that, the Marines would see them both dead, she can’t bring herself to be kind now.

“I suppose so,” Rayleigh doesn’t pull out his flask and he doesn’t take a sip, but he wants to, it’s easy to read in the way he frowns. “Where to for now?”

“I promised Crocus that I would return for a check up before sailing back into Paradise. After that, I don’t know. There’s a whole ocean out there, Rayleigh, one that is big enough to hide even the greatest secrets, I’m sure that I can find one of those to keep me safe.”

Rayleigh sighs, his shoulders straightening and his eyes closing for a long moment, “I suppose that if I want to stay, you’re going to tell me to stop drinking.”

“If you stay, it’ll be impossible for anyone to miss who I am.”

“If I leave, Roger would never forgive me.”

“I won’t hold you to promises that you made him. You made them to a dead man, he can’t exactly keep you to them.”

Rouge feels old, her body aches and she’s never been so afraid for her life, or her child’s. If that means that she has to forsake the only help that he could arrange for her because Rayleigh is too drunk and too buried in his own grief, than so be it. She will make sure that nothing stops her, not now.

“You wouldn’t,” Rayleigh agrees. “I know a couple islands that specialize in medical fields and a few more that are willing to pretend that they haven’t seen something in exchange for gold. Do you have a preference?”

* * *

"You seem invested in that paper," Benn states, leaning his chin against his palm as he studies the bar. It’s been quiet since they sat down, for all that he’s spotted three different crews and a smattering of undercover marines asking rather pointed questions about something. He can’t see what they’re saying, but he’s keeping an eye on them, encase they turn their attention his way. "Something interesting?"

"Silvers Rayleigh has been connected with a new crew," Shanks answers after a long moment of silence, setting the page on the table and smoothing it out. "Her name is Portgas D Rouge."

Benn studies the pictures, side by side on the front page of the paper. Rayleigh is the first, his glasses glinting in the light, caught mid movement as his sword comes down. Portgas D Rouge is next, hair pulled up high and her smile sharper than a sea king's, fists darker than the rest of her, "it has been almost four years."

"She's his captain, according to the sources the article used. I didn’t think Rayleigh would join up with someone else, not after we disbanded.”

“Do you know her?” Benn asks finally, watching Shanks study the article too intently. “Or of her?”

Shanks frowns, but shakes his head, “If I did, it wasn’t well. She’s familiar, I think, but it could be that I’ve seen someone similar to her before this. The world is vast.”

“What’s she wanted for?”

“It doesn’t say, which is the other reason she caught my attention,” Shanks admits. “It dances around her crimes and her bounty.”

Benn raises an eyebrow when Shanks trails off, his mouth moving as he skims down the page, obviously looking for Portgas D Rouge’s listed bounty, which isn’t listed underneath her photograph the way that Silvers’ is.

“She’s a few hundred belli below Whitebeard. And her poster only dates back to the end of last year.”

“That’s unnaturally fast,” Benn agrees, leaning forward to try and see if Shanks had missed something in the article and finding it just as lacking in details as he had said that it would be. There’s a note of Portgas coming from either South or East Blue, but her bounty isn’t linked to either. “What in the name of all the Blues did she do?”

“Even the captain had his crimes listed,” Shanks mutters, turning to the back of the paper and skimming the lists of pirates that have arrived in the Grand Line or have upped their bounties. Benn can see his own there, highlighting the increase that he had gotten in their last bout with the marines. “Here she is.”

Portgas D Rouge’s name is listed alphabetically, as were all the others, but her crimes are simple compared to some of the others. Destruction of property and piracy, murder and looting, but nothing that would jump her above Shanks in bounty. Except-

“Conspiracy? Conspiracy to what?” Benn shifts his hand to cover his mouth as one of the marines focuses on him. “Don’t they usually list the conspiracy?”

“She’s got conspiracy to destroy the World Nobles, it could be that they don’t want people to know what she’s done. But that leaves us in an odd place, because that conspiracy could be anything and with Rayleigh on her crew, it means that I’m going to poke my nose into it,” Shanks sighs, rolling his shoulders backwards and tilting his head from side to side.

“No one would fault you for doing nothing. He deserted you first.”

Benn doesn’t think kindly of the men and women who had sailed on the Oro Jackson before Roger had disbanded them. Some of them had been captured and executed early on, and he couldn’t blame them, but he did hate them. Shanks didn’t admit it, but he hadn’t been more than fifteen when had taken off on his own after losing his only home, and they hadn’t even considered it. 

“I know,” Shanks grins, wide and so fake that it sets Benn on edge. “But I don’t think I’m really going for him. Portgas D Rouge looks interesting, don’t you think?”

“Does she?”

Shanks nods, “Rayleigh said that being Roger’s first mate was like trying to corral a hurricane. Demanding, tiring, and ultimately useless, but he would get bored of someone that didn’t force him to keep on his toes.”

“So Portgas would have to be half of that to keep him from wandering off?”

“I think so,” Shanks sighs, flipping back to the front page to skim the article once more. “It says that she’s in route to Saboady. I don’t recognize the island here, do you?”

“Shanks, I’m not going to recognize a slip of an island in the background of a picture. But we’re not far from Saboady, if you’re really that interested. I’m sure that your contact there would be willing to help us find them after we arrive.”

“Shakky would, Rayleigh’s her idiot husband,” Shanks’ grin is all teeth as he pushes himself up and out of his chair, leaving the paper spread over the table. “Come on then, Mr. Beckman, we have a route to plot.”

“I thought we were in agreement to use only my last name,” Benn mutters, snatching up the paper and pushing his chair back into place as Shanks ignores him with ease. “Lead the way, Captain.”

Shanks smirks, glancing back at Benn under the brim of his hat, “You know, you’re suppose to be distracting me so that we can resupply without me doing something stupid. Think they’re done?”

“If they aren’t than that’s their fault. I promised them two hours, they’ve had two and a half. Maybe they’ll have forgotten your booze this time.”

“That’s just mean, Benn. I thought you liked me.”

“Now why would I do something like that? Sounds like it would complicate my life more than it already is,” he lets his smile fall as Shanks pushes open the door to the bar, muttering darkly to himself. 

This one trip had more opportunity to hurt Shanks than anything else that they had done since becoming a crew. Shanks was never at his best when dealing with members of his old crew, but that was fine. Benn could take care of everything should he have to. After all, he was more than willing to remove any obstacle in his captain’s way.

* * *

“You’re being called a monster again,” Rayleigh states, leaning against the bar as Shakky drops another mug in front of him. “My ears are ringing.”

“Or you’ve overheard the baby marines that have attempted to take over a corner of your wife’s bar,” Rouge whispers back, watching them curiously as they laugh and joke. They would sooner piss themselves than stand up to her, but it’s cute to think they have this much false bravado, even so young. “Think they’re gonna enjoy the bill?”

“She did name it a rip off bar.”

Rouge snorts, draining her glass, covering the top when Shakky lifts a pitcher at the other end of the bar, in the midst of trying to settle someone’s tab, “Why are we drinking in your wife’s bar instead of helping the crew get supplies? You know that Olivia isn’t the best at telling Ace that he can’t have something.”

“She’s a well respected archaeologist.”

“And a wanted criminal who is trying to make up for the six years that she abandoned her daughter with her brother,” Rouge reminds him, resting her chin on her palm and resisting the urge to kick her feet back and forth. “And Robin just has to tell Ace that she wants something and suddenly he does too.”

Rayleigh hums, “Ace is cuter than his dad. Roger looked like a fool when he pouted, Ace looks cute. Hard to resist when things look cute.”

“You’re drunk,” Rouge sighs, rolling her eyes when he raises an eyebrow, because she’s not sober, but she knows better than to drink enough to leave her unable to fight. Not when she’s already on her way to being Whitebeard’s equal in bounty. “This better not start becoming a common occurrence.”

“As if you would let me have enough booze on the ship to do that.”

“You’re happier sober,” Shakky states, finally returning to join them, sliding a glass of water into Rouge’s hands as she takes the empty glass from the bar. “You try to deny it, but you’re a maudlin drunk.”

“I’m a maudlin person in general. Someone on this crew has to be. We’ve got a tiny star on our ship, we’ll burn up without me there.”

“Ace is still a little boy, no matter how bright you think his smiles are. And he’s not his father.”

Rayleigh hums softly, “His father burned long and bright. Should be more worried that Ace’ll burn out too fast. You’ve given him a better legacy, but anyone could burn themselves out trying to reach you.”

“Does he always compare people to stars?” Rouge asks Shakky curiously as Rayleigh drops his head to the bar. “I don’t remember him doing this the last time we went drinking.”

“Rayleigh has poetic moments. Not often, but he has them. Stars are rather poetic to compare people to,” she answers after a long moment of silence, broken by the raucous laughter from the marines. “They’re never going to pay me off.”

“Does anyone ever pay you off?” Rouge asks, pushing her hair behind her ear, watching the newest patron making his way to the bar. “Or do you just keep us all on tabs that we’ll never pay off so that we keep adding to them?”

Shakky laughs, smiling easily, “Now why would I answer that?” she pauses. “It’s been a while, Shanks.”

Rouge doesn’t react to the name, but she does watch him. Roger might not have treated his cabin boys like his children, not like she knew Whitebeard had, but he did care for them. Cared enough that when they had both run after hearing that the crew was disbanding that he had tried to find them.

“Well, I’ve been busy,” Shanks says grinning widely, one of his crew following in his wake. “You don’t get a bounty like mine sitting around and playing cards.”

“That was one time,” Rayleigh states, head on his arms. “One time and you lot never let it die.”

Shanks grins, not surprised and Rouge didn’t think he would be, “Old Man Rayleigh, I didn’t think I would run into you here. Not when you’ve been running around with a new captain.”

“We needed to resupply,” Rouge cuts in smoothly, smiling easily when Shanks’ eyes cut towards her. “Portgas D Rouge, at your service. And you’re Shanks. I’ve heard quite a few things about you.”

“Rayleigh spreading stories again?”

“No,” Rouge answers, resisting the urge to laugh at the look that crosses Shanks’ face. “But he has told me a few.”

“Than you have me at a disadvantage, Miss Rouge.”

Rouge hums, “I suppose I do.”

She doesn’t elaborate, not when she can sense Olivia herding Robin and Ace towards the bar. Ace might not look shockingly like Roger, but combined with Rayleigh’s protection and the crimes not listed on her bounty, it’s enough to make someone who knew Roger recognize him for who he is.

“Mama!”

“Ace,” Rouge shouts, spinning on her stool as Ace slams into her legs, giggling excitedly. “Did you have a good time in town with Olivia and Robin?”

“Uh-huh!” Ace bounces on his toes, eyes wide. “Robin promised to teach me to read like she can! Do you think I can do it, mama?”

Rouge hums, lifting him into her arms to press a kiss to his forehead, “I think that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

Shanks’ eyes are wide when she glances over at him, his hand shaking against the countertop as he glances between Ace, Rouge, and Rayleigh, “Oh.”

“You know, mama made a new friend today,” Ace bounces in her lap, always excited to meet her friends. “Ace, this is Shanks. Shanks, please meet my son, Portgas D Ace.”

“Uncle Ray says that you sailed with him and daddy,” Ace says kicking his feet, grinning so wide that Rouge thinks it should hurt, Roger used to smile like that too. “Did you really?”

“I did,” Shanks agrees, clearing his throat. “I was a cabin boy.”

Rouge hides a smile in Ace’s hair as he asks Shanks more questions. Roger’s legacy would always be One Piece and Raftel, it would be what the world remembered him for long after the stories about how monsterous he was died away, but the rest of it, the stories the government didn’t want to spread, Rouge would make sure that was the legacy that Ace and Roger’s crew remembered.

“Mama, did daddy really try to eat a whole sea king by himself?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think you’re old enough to eat that much.”

“Oh,” Ace pouts, barely there for a moment before he turns back to Shanks. “More please?”

“If your mom doesn’t mind.”

“You have more stories than I do,” Rouge admits softly. “As long as it’s nothing too dangerous, I don’t mind. Everyone should know who their father is, don’t you think?”

* * *

“You knew about this, didn’t you?” Sengoku asks finally, pressing against his temples to ward off the headache that has been building since the first report had come in. “Tell me that you didn’t, Garp.”

“He asked me to keep an eye out for her,” Garp answers honestly, studying the photograph curiously. “Said that he had asked his first mate to keep her safe, but should anything happen to him that I was his next choice.”

“And you didn’t report it?”

“You mean give an innocent woman and her child up to be murdered in the name of justice? No, but you already knew that I wouldn’t do that.”

Sengoku sighs tiredly, “And now she’s told the world.”

“You think she would have kept it quiet?”

Sengoku isn’t sure what he expected of someone to have loved Gol D Roger, but it wasn’t the snarled message delivered to them by Akainu’s first mate along with the Vice Admiral’s head, because Portgas D Rouge had taken offense to them getting her name wrong and to Akainu’s hand in Ohara’s destruction, deciding to remove both problems with the same shot.

“I think that it’s out of our hands now.”

Garp hums, setting down the poster declaring Gol D Rouge as an Empress and the Pirate King’s wife carefully, “I won’t kill children or stand by again to let you order the same.”

“It wasn’t my order.”

“No, but you obeyed. I’ll be a grandfather soon, you’d do the same to him as you did to the children that were suspected to be Roger’s after his execution.”

Sengoku sighs, “I suppose we’ll have to see what our orders are.”

“Maybe you will, but I’ve made my choice.”

“Garp, you know they won’t let you go. Even with your son, you’re still the hero of the marines,” Sengoku pauses as his friend stands, brushing the crumbs off. “They can’t afford you leaving with Roger’s wife still alive.”

“My son will send his child to me and if I ask a pirate to raise him, who’s to know. Roger asked me for a favor, maybe his wife will allow me to ask one of her.”


End file.
